


holding hands

by elossa



Series: Daretowrite Entries [4]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, music bonding is a Real Thing™, they are still skaters dw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-11 00:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18419405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elossa/pseuds/elossa
Summary: Otabek and Leo couldn’t tell you how they became a thing.But this is what they can tell you.





	holding hands

**Author's Note:**

> hi i'm writing for the yoi fandom and eeeee!!!! i can't believe this is the 3rd oneshot in the att au i thought of but the first one i actually wrote!
> 
> also who knew i would be such leobek trash i mean really...... who knew.....

Otabek and Leo couldn’t tell you how they became a thing.

But this is what they _can_ tell you.

* * *

 

**2010**

Leo’s first attempt in the double axel hadn’t gone particularly well.

As in, it went disastrously.

He winced as his ankle bent and his side slammed onto the ground with a thud, hissing as he attempted to stand up. A raven-haired boy with cold eyes and a rigid posture came to his aid, his coach a few centimetres behind him.

“You okay?” he replied.

Leo’s vision trembled like an earthquake. He blinked furiously, trying to regain his senses. “I’m just - I need a minute.” He stood, his knees almost buckling.

“Here. Let me help.” Leo took the extended hand that was offered to him, steadying himself until he found the world made sense to him again. Nothing spun. Everything was stable.

He was fine.

Facing him, the boy - a new arrival who only arrived a couple of months ago - offered his hand again. “I’m Otabek.”

Leo shook his hand. “Leo.”

* * *

 

**2012**

Otabek decided to leave practice early today, unlacing his skates when it had just gone three p.m. It would be the last time in a while he would bask in the Californian sunshine, as he was leaving for Calgary the next day, and he intended to make the most of it.

Beside him, Leo had begged his parents to take Otabek down to Santa Barbara for the final time, and by some miracle, they were enjoying their ice-cream cones, an earbud in each boy. The latest Interpol album had come through, and their schedules had finally wound down enough to warrant a good listen.

Interpol turned into Pompeya’s _Tropical._ Otabek was planning to catch the Russian indie band the next time they were in St. Petersburg with his brother, who had been the first person to beg him to give them a go.

“Fitting title,” Leo whispered, staring at the album cover.

The sun set before they realised it was time for dinner, and they settled on some hot dogs and people watching on some park benches. Their ear buds were out, replaced with the sounds of other people’s conversations and dogs barking for attention.

“I’m going to miss this,” Otabek said, as if it was a decision he just made.

His arms wrapped around his calves, Leo said, “Then why are you leaving?”

“Because… it’s time,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I feel like I’ve learned enough here and it’s time to go to other places.”

Otabek knew Leo understood, and yet he was still hunched over and quieter than normal.

“I’ll come visit. And we’ll share a playlist or something.”

Leo frowned, “Can you do that?”

“We’ll figure it out,” Otabek said, extending his hand. “Best friends?”

Grinning, Leo took his hand. “Best friends.”

* * *

That summer, Otabek became friends with Yuri Plisetsky.

* * *

 

**2013**

Every time Leo’s phone rang with the anthemic guitar riff of Lucidity, Otabek’s song of the month, his heart skipped a beat. Otabek called less often these days, since he was off making his Junior debut. Leo had done his bit at Skate America, and starting on home turf definitely made a difference.

_Otabek Altin:  
See you in Russia?_

Leo grinned.

_Leo de la Iglesia:  
See you soon!_

Their meeting in Russia felt like something in his heart had come home. Leo had felt so embarrassed hugging Otabek that he ranted for five minutes before Otabek hugged him back, something that was distinctly out of character but at the same time screamed _I miss you too._

That was when Yuri Plisetsky registered himself on Leo’s radar. While the two of them argued in Russian about what to have for dinner. A part of the brunet didn’t feel wholly comfortable with blending into the background when he just reunited with his best friend after almost a year, but when Yuri left after dinner to ‘hang out with Potya’, that left the two of them in Otabek’s hotel room, listening to Mylo Xyloto for the first time together in the same space.

Both of them shared a favourite song about roses in the rain.

As the night grew older, both of them lay on the bed, talking about rink mates old and new. Leo and Guang Hong had become fast friends during Novices and had kept in touch. Otabek had talked about Yuri Plisetsky doing better triples than anyone he knew and both of them spoke about the newest releases they were fond of.

Leo snuck out of home to attend a Panic! at the Disco concert he got grounded for, but the meagre footage he got was enough to impress Otabek.

“Brendon Urie is _hot,”_ the black haired boy breathed.

“I know, right?” Leo swooned, “that _range,_ man. I wish I had it.”

“Don’t we all?” Otabek said, his eyes stopping to look at Leo and how his grin stretched wider than the Sun.

* * *

 

**2014**

After the Junior Grand Prix Finals, Guang Hong, Leo, and Otabek were sitting in Leo’s room playing a game of Uno with Minami Kenjirou and Yuri Plisetsky. It turns out that playing a card game with Guang Hong _and_ Otabek tended to result in a blood bath worse than the Final itself. Yuri had only been here to observe, but insisted on getting to know Otabek’s friends from years previous.

“God fucking dammit!” Yuri hissed, “how do you people keep getting all the ‘No Turn’ cards?”

“Beats me,” Otabek replied, shrugging his shoulders as he flicked a ‘Draw Four’ card onto the pile. “Red.”

“Fine,” Minami sighed, his mini pile of cards a signal of his position. “Can you drop out of a game because you’re losing too early?”

“No,” Leo exhaled, rubbing his forehead. He placed a red 4 onto the pile. “But I’m sick of _not_ winning.”

“Sucks to be you,” Guang Hong grinned, his words a staccato as he put four cards atop a pile and shrieked ‘Uno’ at the top of his lungs.

“Shh,” Otabek said, “we can end this game after this round if you want.”

“Yeah, I’m _beat,”_ Leo agreed.

Four moves later, Guang Hong had won the final game and the rest of the skaters had left the room for the night. Otabek was getting ready to leave as well before he found Leo lacing up his trainers and carrying his backpack out the room.

“Where are you going, Leo? I thought you were tired.”

“Nah, I so wasn’t. I booked a rink to rehearse the exhibition routine,” Leo said.

“Can I come see?”

Leo shook his head. “You’ll see it in like, twelve hours. You can hold off that long.”

The next day, for his Silver Medal Exhibition Programme, Otabek watched Leo execute his first triple toe loop. He’d never felt prouder as a friend.

* * *

 

**2015**

Catching a cold during his debut was the kind of slightly shitty thing that would happen to Leo. His roommate was busy celebrating his podium finish at Skate Canada while the newcomer had crashed before the free skate.

It was extremely lucky that he knew Otabek would be in town at least for a couple of days before he would need to head out for the Cup of China that year. The duo were sitting on Leo’s bed, letting the newest Coldplay album waft through their headphones under the American’s recommendation.

The concluding tones of Midnight came to a halt before Otabek paused the album and turned to his friend. “I still like Mylo Xyloto better.”

“I had a feeling you’d say that,” he chuckled, his head resting on the Kazakh’s chest. He wasn’t sure when that became a habit, but it was one now, and one he didn’t feel particularly compelled to stop. “Still, I can’t believe that when I met you, Beka, I would have never pegged you as the Coldplay kind of guy.”

“I assure you, Leo. I am definitely that kind of guy.”

“I know you are _now_.”

They continued to listen through the album until its conclusion. In the twenty minutes where they sat in silence, their hands were linked together, the pads of their thumbs brushing the backs of their hands. When the angelic vocals of O finally ended, Leo turned to Otabek and shook his head.

“You’re right. Mylo Xyloto _is_ better.”

* * *

 

**2016**

Otabek knew that being up at 5am on the streets of St. Petersburg smelling like lust and alcohol was not a good look for anyone, yet here he was.

Leo walked by his side, still buzzed from the Jagerbombs he drunk. His arrival was a sudden presence, not entirely unwelcome, but he’d had to make space for the American in his studio flat.

“He still hasn’t called,” Otabek mumbled more to himself, but Leo had always heard him. Waiting was a fatigue he did not know existed until Yuri had uprooted his existence from St. Petersburg to Helsinki in a matter of _weeks_.

Out of the blue yet slow as a snail, Leo held his hand. Something inside his skull shifted, and suddenly his anxiety was no longer an anchor dragging him into the darker side of his thoughts.

“Dude, he’ll call,” Leo smiled, the words a whisper against the heat suffocating them both. “We know that the past couple of months haven’t been great on him. He probably just needs some space.”

Staring down at their intertwined fingers, Otabek wondered why he worried so much about Yuri at all when one of his best friends was right _here._

“Thanks,” he replied.

He paused as he comes to the door leading up to his flat. With hands still joined, he bent down and pecked Leo on the lips.

There was a pause before Leo climbed on his tiptoes and kissed back, wrapping his arms around Otabek’s neck. Warmth swelled in their chests as the space between them narrowed until there was none at all.

They did not sleep that night.

* * *

 

**2016**

“So.”

“So.”

Guang Hong frowned at Leo and Otabek, pointing between the pair of them. “When did this happen?”

“God knows,” the raven-haired Kazakh, who he had definitely _not_ been snogging in the bathroom with a hand down his pants five minutes earlier, replied smoothly.

Leo blushed. “Last year, I think,” the brunet choked out.

In a scandalised tone, Guang Hong shrieked, “And I’m only hearing about this _now?”_ He folded his arms, his brows furrowed as he growled at his two friends. “First of all, Otabek, how _dare_ you? Second of all, Leo, how fucking dare  _you?_ After _all_ this time of setting you up with fucking JJ to find out that you two have been boning behind my back for _forever_ \- “

“You were trying to set me up with JJ?” Leo said, bemused.

“You’re the only person who knows,” Otabek frowned, raising an eyebrow. That would explain why Guang Hong and JJ kept hanging on their periphery throughout the Grand Prix Final banquet.

“What - _no,”_ the youngest skater whispered, “what do you mean I’m the only person who knows?”

“Exactly that,” Leo said, “we never wanted people to make a big deal of it.”

“Case in point,” Otabek agreed.

Leo chuckled.

**Author's Note:**

> playlist link: https://open.spotify.com/user/mclfoygranger/playlist/321fPK55uIUyMXhRVh2f3T?si=INZk2WJcQHeasUgcOUtXHw


End file.
